chipotle chili

Hey all! A quick post here because I’m in the Super Bowl food mood and I thought you might like to share in the fun!

This winter, Andrew and I have enjoyed this chipotle chili more than once. It’s originally a recipe from a lady called The Pioneer Woman, and I found the recipe online when I searched for, you guessed it, chipotle chili. I’ve tinkered with it (I know – what a shock) and have streamlined the ingredients a bit to suit our purposes and tastes. Below, my adaptation and notes. Enjoy!

Chipotle Chili

Olive Oil
2 large shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 pounds meat
1 bottle dark beer (e.g., Mexican beer)
14 oz. can of tomatoes
1-2 tsp. of powdered chipotle peppers
42 oz. beans (e.g., three 14 oz. cans of kidney beans)
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tbsp. ground cumin
Salt to taste
1/4 cup Masa Harina
1 Lime

Sautee the shallots and garlic gently in the olive oil until the shallots are translucent. Add the meat and cook until lightly browned. Add 2/3 of the beer (SAVE THE REST) then cook for a couple of minutes to reduce. Add the tomatoes, chipotle powder, beans, chili powder, cumin and salt. Stir to combine, then cover the pot and cook for 1 hour. After the hour is up, mix the masa harina with the rest of the beer and stir to make a paste. Stir this into the chili, along with the lime juice, and cook for 10 more minutes to thicken.

Serve with your favorite toppings, which for me, is sour cream. Swoon.

Notes
–The original recipe uses 1 onion, but we like the milder flavor of shallots sometimes, so feel free to use either. The original recipe also called for 4 cloves of garlic, but…well…that’s your decision. 🙂

–The original recipe called for 2 pounds of cubed chicken breast. I’ve found that both ground turkey and chicken as well as cubed meat work great, including cubed up rotisserie chicken if time is short! I’ve yet to make this with ground beef, but suspect that it would be totally delicious.

–I’ve made this with both light and dark beer – both work fine, but the dark beer really gives punch.

–The original recipe called for 14 ounces each of three kinds of canned beans. We like kidney beans in particular, so I just simplified things, but feel free to go wild here. Same with the can of tomatoes. The original recipe specifies diced, but frankly, I just use whatever is on sale!

–The original recipe called for chipotle peppers in adobo, but I find those to be (a) messy and (b) a bit wasteful for our purposes, because we don’t eat chipotle peppers a lot, and I hate storing the leftovers in the fridge for some irrational reason. So I was able to find powdered chipotle pepper in the spice aisle at the grocery store, and not only does this work just as well, but is much more adjustable to your heat/smoke/spice preferences. Obviously, go light at first. After it’s cooked for an hour, you can always throw in a dash more if you need more heat. I love that smoky flavor yummmmmm.

–I’d never worked with masa harina before, but I love what it does here as a thickener and flavoring agent. Both the masa harina and lime juice make a big difference to the finished flavor and are definitely keepers in this particular chili.

Excuse me while I go dig in!
xoxo Danielle